A friend was talking lovingly about his garden. He has a great one. It actually fits in with his meticulously fenced-in landscaping surrounding his pool. Not many green thumbs can pull that off. His patch has rows that are in perfect lines. There are no weeds. It’s as if the garden is as pleasing to the eye as the well-groomed lawn.
To top it all off, he comes up a winner every autumn.
It isn’t easy. Birds, chipmunks, groundhogs, deer and even little insects naively believe that there is such a thing as a free lunch.
One might think the owner is a retired gent with loads of time on his hands to fixate on his prized miniaturized farm. But no, he is a C.E.O. Perhaps he sees the connection between the diligence it takes to grow a garden and a business.
When he speaks of biting into the freshly-picked tomato during his harvest, he isn’t thinking of the analogy of tasting the fruits of his labor at work when he talks to his accountant at the end of the year. But he could.
Both are delicious.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Jesus often spoke of fields and farms. For those who love to be close to the earth, a harvest of parables brings them yet closer to heaven.
And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow…So He was saying, "What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? "It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.
Matthew 13:3 (NASB), Luke 13:18,19 (NASB)